Fujitsu will be held accountable over Post Office scandal, says government

Fujitsu will be "held accountable" if it is found to have blundered in the Post Office scandal, the government has said.

Over 700 Post Office branch managers were prosecuted after faulty software made it look like money was missing.

So far, the spotlight has been on the Post Office and politicians' actions. But attention is now turning to Fujitsu, the firm behind the software.

Fujitsu said it was sorry for its role in sub-postmasters' suffering.

Calls are growing for the Japanese firm to explain its role and to pay compensation to victims.

Questions are also being asked over why the firm has continued to win government contracts, despite the cloud of the Post Office scandal hanging over it.

Fujitsu executives have been asked to appear before MPs at a parliamentary committee hearing next week, and will also face questioning at the independent public inquiry looking into the matter, as pressure mounts on those involved in what is considered the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

The prime minister's spokesman said: "Once the inquiry is able to establish the facts and sets them out, those who are found responsible will be held to account, whether that is legally or financially."

The outcome of the inquiry could also influence any current and future contracts Fujitsu has with the UK government, the spokesman said.

Fujitsu said it was fully committed to supporting the inquiry to learn from the events stretching back two decades.

"The inquiry has reinforced the devastating impact on postmasters' lives and that of their families, and Fujitsu has apologised for its role in their suffering," the firm said.

The inquiry has been under way since 2021 but hit the headlines after ITV aired a dramatisation of the events last week.

It told the story of how more than 700 branch managers were convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud based on faulty software, over 15 years.

Around 100 new potential victims of the scandal have since come forward, prompted by the programme and subsequent coverage.

Despite revelations around Fujitsu's role in providing and supporting the Horizon software, which falsely indicated sub-postmasters were taking money from the tills, the firm has continued to win government contracts over the last decade.

Since 2013, the UK government has awarded Fujitsu 191 contracts worth more than £6.5bn, according to the procurement analysts Tussell, including:

In 2022, the government removed Fujitsu from its list of preferred suppliers, but the firm is still able to win government contracts through the normal procurement process.

The Horizon software at the centre of the mistaken prosecutions was originally developed by a British firm International Computers Limited (ICL) in the 1990s.

ICL had been bought by Fujitsu in the 1980s after the Japanese government launched a campaign to counter the dominance of America's IBM on the world stage and gave financial support to three giant technology alliances, including Fujitsu.

At the time, ICL had close ties with the UK government, but was struggling to keep up with its international competitors. Fujitsu saw an opportunity to gain a larger presence in the UK.

However, even prior to Horizon, Fujitsu-developed software was the source of problems for the UK government.

In 1999, the firm won a £184m contract to develop Libra - a software meant to standardise case management transactions across more than 300 magistrates' courts.

In the end, it cost nearly three times more than expected, and the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded that it was not able to produce even basic financial information.

Horizon was installed at the Post Office around the same time. But it was already clear there were weaknesses: it couldn't fulfil the requirements of its original project, an automated system for benefits payments announced in 1994.

Then, there was an NHS lawsuit. Fujitsu was one of four companies tasked with digitising the NHS in 2004.

But after repeated delays and failure to deliver the promised product, the NHS terminated its contract with Fujitsu in 2008. The Japanese company sued and won the case in 2014, which cost the UK government £700m.

Some believe the government may be reluctant to engage in another long, and potentially expensive, legal battle.

Even after the Horizon scandal, its products are deeply entrenched in the government's IT infrastructure.

"Its mainframes have been used for decades at HM Revenue and Customs and the largest department of all, the Department for Work and Pensions, has been pretty reliant on Fujitsu equipment," IT journalist Tony Collins, who has covered the industry for decades, told the BBC in 2022.